Working Government Locum Tenens

THIS ARTICLE PROVIDED BY CALVIN BRUCE WITH JCNATIONWIDE

Have you thought about working locum tenens assignments for government organizations? If you haven’t worked such assignments, there are ample reasons for giving it serious consideration.

Variety of practice settings. Civilian locum tenens assignments tend to be concentrated in hospitals and clinics, for the most part. In contrast, by working government locum tenens regularly, you have a greater variety of practice selection.

In the space of one year, imagine yourself working at a Veterans Hospital in scenic Maine, an Indian reservation in New Mexico, a state mental facility in Ohio, a university medical center in Texas, a state correctional institution in Florida, and an Army medical facility in Hawaii. No two locums assignments are identical, of course; and this applies especially to the government sector. Each practice setting is quite distinctive and offers unique professional challenges.

Learning opportunities. As many locum tenens physicians can attest, working for government medical facilities offers valuable learning opportunities. For example, practicing medicine at a premier teaching hospital like Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC—and interacting with residents, fellows and distinguished military physicians—can be a highly rewarding educational experience.

Similarly, serving at a medical treatment facility on an Indian reservation and dealing with patients who have an entirely different perspective on spirituality as it relates to personal wholeness is highly beneficial for doctors who desire to become more “culturally competent.”

Likewise, working in a state or federal correctional facility can quite an educational experience. Many physicians report that providing medical care to patients who daily deal with the stress of incarceration adds a new dimension of understanding what is involved in providing quality healthcare delivery in adverse circumstances.

Length of assignments. Civilian locums assignments usually involve coverage for a few days, weeks or months. On the other hand, government assignments can last up to one year, with the possibility of contract extension for optional renewal years. If you favor workplace stability and regularity of income, working a long-term government contract might be just the thing for you. To make your stay most comfortable, the recruiting agency will likely rent a furnished apartment with suitable amenities throughout your stay.

Thoroughness of privileging. One of the “downsides” of working government locum tenens concerns how long and involved the privileging process can be. With military hospitals, for instance, the process can take up to 45 days, which can necessitate verification of hospital privileges everywhere the doctor has worked in his or her medical career. Privileging at state and federal facilities, such as correctional institutions, typically involves an extensive background investigation, including an FBI check. Likewise, at facilities where locum tenens doctors handle pediatric cases, a background investigation that includes checking with the sex offender registry is customary procedure.

The upside of all this is that once you have successfully completed such in-depth privileging, it is much easier to acquire privileges at other government or civilian medical facilities.

Case in point: The Veterans Affairs Administration has simplified the credentialing and privileging process for doctors working in their facilities nationwide. Providers who are entered into the “VetPro” system can have their credentialing information accessed electronically by any VA hospital or clinic that is considering hiring them for temporary or permanent employment. The result is a more simplified and “hassle free” placement process appealing to busy providers.

Locums-to-perm opportunities. Admittedly, there are not as many temp-to-perm opportunities in the government sector as there are in the civilian arena. Nevertheless, on occasion government organizations offer permanent employment to outstanding locum tenens providers whom they envision as making a long-term contribution to their medical facilities. When this occurs, usually the contract providers have worked at the facility for as long as one year. In such instances, both employer and provider have had ample time to determine how much of a “fit” there is with respect to a long-term association.

Patriotic pride. As the war in Afghanistan and Iraq continues, more and more military physicians are deployed to the combat zone. These deployments result in military facilities needing to “backfill” physician vacancies with locum tenens doctors, many of them involving long-term assignments. Quite often, locum tenens physicians experience a sense of patriotic duty in filling in for military practitioners who are sent to war-torn areas. Along with earning a paycheck for providing quality healthcare, they are also making a valuable contribution to our ongoing war against terrorism. That is certainly something to think about.

Important caveats. Locum tenens assignments with government organizations are always subject to the government’s budgetary process. If funding is not available, the staffing requirement is cancelled or put on hold until sufficient new funding becomes available. Furthermore, all government contracts include the “cancellation for convenience, for the good of the government” out-clause. When government contractors exercise this option, locum tenens assignments can be shortened, optional renewal years not exercised, and so forth. The reality is that what appeared to be a good long-term opportunity might end up being something other than that.

What the government expects of contract providers is quite demanding. They expect physicians to be up-to-speed on electronic record keeping and the paperless work flow of medical departments. Also, providers must have a current certificate from the Drug Enforcement Agency and quickly become familiar with the medical facility’s drug formulary.

A strict hiring requirement is for contract providers to have a recent physical exam and appropriate immunization shots. Furthermore, access to military databases requires a thorough background check and carefully monitored physical access to the medical facility.

Conclusion. Working government locum tenens has many similarities to--but important distinctions from--working civilian assignments. Overall, serving a government medical organization can be quite challenging and rewarding for providers whose personalities and work styles are suited to it.

If government locum tenens is appealing to you, talk to recruiters who do an extensive amount of business with the government. They may have current or upcoming contract opportunities that suit your professional interests and practice preferences.

Calvin Bruce, CPC, serves as Senior Staff Writer with JCNationwide in Atlanta, a division of World Health Alternatives, Inc. 

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